The Slack team collaboration tool has proved popular with many businesses since it first launched in 2013. It requires an entirely different mindset, and it will be interesting to see if Slack can meet those kinds of requirements.
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Enterprise Grid covers the enterprise basics.
“Microsoft has thrown down the gauntlet to Slack and other chat-based workspace providers with the announcement of a new Office 365 product family member”, Ovum research analyst, Richard Edwards, said.
Slack for Enterprise promises a range of features, including the previously announced “federation” which will make it easier for multiple teams to have their own custom installations of Slack, while still being able to talk to other co-workers on other versions. All of these workspaces can have shared communications channels, which serves as a bridge between two or more workspaces. “They’ll work with IT on security and offer more in-depth analytics”.
A company can create an unlimited number of workspaces internally.
“When dealing with enterprises that have a lot of different departments, you can’t have a Slack team with 30,000 employees”, said David Markovich, founder of ChatOverload, a New York-based Slack consultancy. Employees will be able to create and review activities and achievements; managers will be able to provide feedback on those actions – all without having to break from the work they’re already doing in Slack. “This gives each team a focused place to work, where they can access the people, information, and applications that matter the most to their projects”. This allows teams to collaborate cross-functionally, without exposing one another to sensitive information or share details that are unnecessary for the other groups.
What do developers need to know?
Now, Slack says marketing can have one workspace, while sales can have another. “With Skyhigh for Slack to enforce security and compliance policies, CIOs and CTOs can answer the demand for game-changing business tools without compromising on security requirements”. It’s worth pointing out that Node.js is a wrapper around the Slack RTM and Web APIs. This view is one borne out of experience; Yared claims that Slack rarely comes up in conversation with Global 200 firms in terms of messenger integrations – it’s all about Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco.
In addition to the enterprise enhancements launching Tuesday, the company also previewed a series of upcoming search improvements that are aimed at helping people more easily find what they need inside a Slack instance. Teams have their own workspaces but can be linked, by the grace of admin, through shared channels. It’s called Slack Enterprise Grid, and thus far, behemoths like IBM, PayPal, and Capital One are already taking advantage of its functionality.
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Roy added that enterprises thinking of taking the plunge with Slack’s enterprise-grade tool should bear in mind four steps. Rob Bellmar, EVP of Business Operations at West Unified Communications, isn’t fully convinced the new features will help. Time will tell how big a threat Microsoft’s Teams will be. “I don’t anticipate these IT departments jumping ship for Slack just yet”.
